Songs & Dances (2018)

Version for piano Quatre mains

score

 

Ten pieces (or movements)

I.      Okinawa Dance

II.     Tokyo Song

III.    Hong Kong Dance

IV.    Holy Mountain Song

V.     River Song

VI.    Swan Dance

VII.   Rotterdam Song

VIII.  Clear Island Dance

IX.    Night Train Song

X.     Underground Dance

Songs & Dances is commissioned by VAKIR, a Rotterdam Society for Chamber music musicians, for their 30th Anniversary. For this commission I formulated two goals. Firstly, the society has members that play various instruments on various levels, therefore I wanted to make something in which everybody that wants to participate can. Secondly I aim for music that would appeal to both professionals and amateurs.

For Songs & Dances, my point of departure was the novel Ghostwritten of David Mitchell that contains ten stories that take place in different countries around the world, where some characters, or storylines, accidentally cross each other. Another binding factor is that there is a ghost who travels from body to body and observes what happens in the world.